The headline number is derived from the Q2 earnings report for E.W.Scripps, Stitcher’s parent company. Scripps has sold Stitcher to SiriusXM, in a deal planned for Q3 closing. Click through for details, quotes from the conference call, and our arithmetic. Continue Reading
ART19 sent us a note that the company has tightened its grip on South Korea podcasting, now providing hosting, distribution, and exclusive ad-repping to all major broadcasters. This follows a December announcement in which ART19 established a dominant footprint in S. Korea, and opened a business unit called ART19 Korea. Continue Reading
Townsquare Media’s COVID quarter tells a varied story in the company’s Q2 earnings release. Net income for the quarter was down year-over-year (a nearly universal Q2 earnings story), while digital revenue gained in share of total revenue. CEO and RAIN Summit keynoter Bill Wilson noted that sequential revenue (month-over-month within the quarter) rose, and that Townsquare Interactive, the company’s subscription service for digital marketing, earned nearly half of total net revenue. Continue Reading
Spotify’s newly launched playlist feature, track IDs, is based on this question: “Do you ever dance to your favorite DJ and wonder what track they’re mixing?” The answer is supplied by an array of 23 playlists curated by DJs and the Spotify editorial team. The volume of music is impressive. Continue Reading
Google Play Music will reportedly be shuttered. The timetable? September for Australia and New Zealand, October for everyone else. Users will have until end-of-year to retrieve their cloud-stored music. The existing YouTube Music will take over as Google’s on-demand streaming service. This shift is helpful to what has been Google’s audio-related miasma of branding. Continue Reading
iHeartRadio, one of the world’s largest podcast publishers, and Tongal, a content creation and talent crowdsourcing platform, are teaming up on The Next Great Podcast, an open call for submissions to win resources for developing a new iHeartRadio podcast. Tongal, which has been a resource for film production, will likely gain more recognition in podcasting with this venture. Semi-finalists get $1,000 each, and the winner gets an on-ramp to making an iHeartRadio podcast. Continue Reading
In its recent Q2 earnings call, Sirius XM discussed streaming, its multiple acquisitions, and podcasting in some detail. Remarks about podcasting are quite interesting, somewhat shading the industry as young and largely immature, while evangelizing the production and marketing power of SiriusXM. Click through for many quotes. Continue Reading
In a consumer-friendly infographic, Spotify highlighted some key (non-finance) results related to its Q2 earnings report last week. Juuust under 300-million users now, and 138-million subscribers. And the service is available in 92 countries. Click through to see the whole thing. Continue Reading
Pandora is releasing a raft of survey results gleaned from a study conducted by the streaming company in league with Publicis Media Exchange and Edison Research. The purpose is for advertisers to better understand levels of consumer adoption of streaming. Pandora is releasing a raft of survey results gleaned from a study conducted by the streaming company in league with Publicis Media Exchange and Edison Research. The purpose is for advertisers to better understand levels of consumer adoption of streaming. Click through for extensive results/ Continue Reading
SiriusXM held its Q2 earnings call, during which the cost of the recently acquired Stitcher was revealed — it is $265-million. Buying Simplecast cost the satellite company $28-million. The earnings call also reminded investors of a February SoundCloud investment of $75-million. On the financial side, Sirius subscription revenue notched up a bit from the same quarter in 2019.
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The Insider Interviews podcast, created and hosted by marketing strategist and journalist E.B. Moss has posted a new episode featuring a live chat with RAIN president Brad Hill, and an excerpt of the recently produced RAIN Global Podcast Leadership Summit. Click through to listen/see the video version. Continue Reading
The RAIN Global Podcast Leadership Summit, RAIN’s first virtual installation of its 20-year, highly regarded Summit series of business conferences, was a resounding success as two-dozen speakers from both hemispheres across 17 time zones delivered thought leadership to over 600 registered attendees. Continue Reading